"Alright, Mary, stay behind me." I told her in a commanding tone that meant I was going to be taking no for an answer when we started to get close to the structure.
"Sigh... Fine, but I want to do some shooting too, you know. I need to get at least a little bit of payback."
"There will be plenty of enemies for you to put holes into in a moment here. Just do so as safely as you can from behind me since I'm the one with the armor, they have no way of breaching, after all."
"Okay, that I can do... But how do you know there will be tons of them inside without having been inside the place yourself?"
"Hmm, that's a good question. However, unfortunately for you, it's a secret you can find out about later if you ever meet the requirements to." I answered jokingly.
"You're no fun at all, huh, big guy?"
"I can be when I want to."
Done bantering with the rowdy cowgirl, we got into the zone, although mainly her, and once we were ready, I walked up to the shack's door and kicked it. This resulted in the sturdy door snapping off its hinges and blasting off into the interior of the not so small shack that had 5 bandits sitting around at a simplistic wood table that had definitely seen better days. With my AP-6 Hand Cannon already drawn beforehand, I raised it one handed and fired it 4 times, planting a single round into 4 of the 5 enemies' domes, leaving the last survivor for my companion to mop up. Which she certainly did as I finished painting the walls of the room with my victims' blood and brain matter.
Leaving all four of them dead with headshots and another with dozens of charred holes peppered across his midsection, I quickly popped out my oversized revolver's cylinder and unloaded the 4 spent rounds. I then thumbed in four fresh .338 Lapua Magnum rounds out of view of my companion's eyesight from my item box in a flash and the second I had 6 cartridges loaded, I swung the cylinder back into place. Much to the amazement of Mary, who was looking on with stars in her eyes at my reloading speed.
I was honestly hoping I wouldn't find any captured wastelanders, but I guess I was a bit too hopeful.
Inspecting the scene below with my perception field, I became increasingly more pissed off the more wounds I found on the bodies of their unlucky victims.
These sick fucks actually captured a handful of men and a dozen and half women and subjected them to rape, burning, flaying, and all sorts of other kinds of wicked torture. I knew the bandits of this world were fucked up, but holy shit, who needs hell when you have these guys dishing out plenty of it, and this place is nothing but a small bandit den out in the middle of nowhere. I can only imagine what sort of tragedies are taking place in the large bandit clans. It's probably the equivalent of hell on earth or as close as one can get to it.
"Mary, I'm going to warn you ahead of time. What you're going to see below isn't going to be pretty and is really fucked up, so prepare yourself."
"If you're telling me that now, I'm guessing there are others below."
Simply nodding my head in response, she continued in a mixture of both anger and sadness. "I heard stories of what bandits do to people once they get their filthy hands on them, so I was praying we would be lucky enough to not come across anyone besides them..."
"Well, anyway, thanks for the heads up, Dom. I'll be sure to steel myself for the hellish scene we'll see."
Back to fully loaded status and fuming with what I had just seen below, I stowed my revolver and moved towards an inbuilt shelving unit at the back of the place and ripped it out of the wall, revealing a hidden stairwell that led to the large hidden space below. Tossing that shelving aside, I redrew my side arm and stepped into the dark stairwell constructed of rough cut wood.
My cowgirl friend and I pressed on down the wood steps that creaked as we went deeper and before long, the dimly lit space began to brighten up ahead. So with my pistol drawn, I pushed forward, intent on dishing out at least a smidgen of the pain they wrought on to others over the years.
Coming off the stairs, the area opened up into a relatively roomy tunnel-like space with the same rough cut wood the stairs were constructed from making up a majority of the flooring. The walls were made from the same construction material as well and ran the whole length of the place whilst the ceiling was left rough with the occasional beam running across the top to ensure the place was structurally sound and to prevent the exposed rock from caving in.
Not coming across any enemies just yet because of them pulling back due to all the noise our weapons made when we slaughtered their comrades up above, I pushed forward, with Mary following right behind me. Putting one foot in front of the other, we began closing in quickly on the hostiles that were lying in wait ahead, ready to ambush the both of us any second now. As soon as we got within 10 or so feet of the right turn at the end of the tunnel, two bandits armed with beat up AKMs popped out from around the corner and unloaded on me, who was standing in front.
Bracing myself, I stood still to protect the girl behind me from getting riddled with bullet holes and waited for the two morons to run their firearms dry. Once they were, I blitzed forward before grabbing hold of them and slamming the both of them into the floorboards below. I then followed that up by knocking the two numbskulls out while I figured out what sort of punishment would be equivalent for the atrocities they committed.
If this were any normal situation, I would've put round into both of their noggins' by now, but that would be letting them off lightly for the deeds I saw them commit further in.
"I thought we were goners for a moment there, but you really are a tough guy, aren't ya." The lass commented, impressed after popping her head out from behind.
"That's one of the many perks that comes with having a heavy suit of armor."
"Mm, maybe I can get a suit like yours one day?"
"It's not out of the realm of possibilities."
Ending the small talk there, I stepped over the bodies, but just as I was going to continue moving deeper into the den, I noticed Mary moving her firearm to end the knocked out bandits. With me not wanting to see them get off so lightly, I spun around and halted her actions before she could dispose of the two. "Hold up, Mary, don't go killing them off just yet."
"Why not? Isn't ridding the world of even a single bandit not a net positive?"
"It is. However, letting them depart for the afterlife so soon is much too light of a punishment for these scum."
"Are you sure?"
"100% and I'm certain you'll be agreeing with me the moment you've witnessed what they've done."
Successful in dissuading my female companion from ending them then and there, I continued down the tunnel, encroaching closer and closer on the bandits' living quarters and their prisoners' cells. Following a couple of minutes of meandering through the tunnel, we encountered more resistance from the other residents of this shit hole.
So I repeated the same strategy I used previously and waited for them to expend all their ammunition. And once they were empty, I made my move and raced forward, grabbed the front most enemy, lifted him up, much to his surprise. I then threw him at his friends, who were positioned in a firing line to maximize firepower and knocked a good number of them over like a bunch of bowling pins. Putting several of them out of commission with that singular move, I didn't waste a second and immediately went after the remainder of their forces and disabled them, breaking bones a plenty in the process of my rampage.
"Alright, that's the lot of them. You're good to move up now, Mary."
"Okay, I'm on my way." She replied from around the corner, back the way I came from.
When she reached my side, we left the mess I made for us to deal with later and started heading in the direction of the cells. It took a minute, but we eventually reached the branch in the tunnels that would bring us to the captured wastelanders. The instant the two of us rounded the corner, the extent of the bandits' cruelty was laid bare for us to take in. What came into view was a line of cells on either side of the tunnel and inside each of those rusted cells was a human captured from some part of the wasteland.
Taking a good look at the first cell to my right, I found a woman with one intact, lifeless eye chained up to the back wall. The woman who I presumed to be on the younger side could've been in her early 20s, but because of the number the bandits did to her body, I couldn't pinpoint an accurate age range, so anyone's guess was as good as any. Spending a couple seconds longer examining her frame, which was marred by many, many scabbed over lacerations and other such wounds, I found my anger rising at an exponential rate, so I got my emotions under control before I turned back and ripped the bandits limb from limb.
Absolutely disgusted with the appalling scene that lay behind the rusted steel bars, I proceeded further into the area, inspecting the states of each of the wastelanders whilst Mary looked on horrified but also incredibly thankful that she didn't end up in their shoes. Slowly passing by one cobbled together prison cell after the next, I used the tragedy I was seeing and carved it into my mind to harden my mental for the fucked up shit I would most definitely encounter someday, probably in the not too distant future if the wasteland had anything to say about it.
The instant I was finished scanning the last of the victims, which was a dead man of god knows what age with most of the skin flayed from his body, I performed a 180 and returned to the now fuming cowgirl. "Looks like you're of the same mindset now, huh?"
"Sure am... Whatever you decide to do with them, Dom, you won't see me trying to stop you, no matter how gruesome your means may be."
"Good, because the consequences of their actions will be anything but light." I responded while unintentionally releasing a smidgen of the bloodlust which had the side effect of scaring Mary for a moment.
Noticing the fear in her eyes, I reeled my bloody aura in, causing her to untense and release a sigh of relief. "You know you can be quite scary sometimes, handsome."
"Sorry about that." I responded, somewhat embarrassed at the fact that I let myself lose control over my emotions for a blip.
The both of us discussed things for a bit, mainly pertaining to what we should do from here, and eventually the conversation transitioned to what should be done about the tortured wastelanders. "If I'm being totally honest here, I could probably heal them good as new, if given enough time. That said, all of them appeared to be destroyed mentally, so the best thing we could do for them would be to give them a quick, painless death instead of prolonging their suffering."
"But what if... Hah, no, I believe you're right. So, how do you want to do this?"
"Well, if you don't have an issue with it, I don't mind taking care of the deed. It would be easier on my conscience than yours, I'm guessing... No offense."
"None taken and I'm relieved you offered, since I don't think it would go over that well if I had to pull the trigger."
"Don't worry about it."
Settled on which of us wanted to be the one to end their misery and send them on to their next life, I went to each cell, unlocked it, drew my AP-6 Hand Cannon, and fired one round into each of the wastelanders' skulls ending their tortuous existences. When I had finally sent all 23 of them on their way, hopefully to a better life, I once again returned to my female companion's side, who was now in a much more depressed and dark mood.
I'm not the most morally upstanding guy going, but something is going to have to be done about these bandit scum. This evil is just simply too much for me to allow it to go on... Hmm, instilling fear into the population across the wastes could work, I suppose. Having said that, how would I even go about accomplishing that, let alone get them to receive the message loud and clear.
And besides, it's not like they're the most rational beings, so there's a very good chance they wouldn't even listen, even if they knew it would result in massive consequences for themselves. Therefore, the only real way of stopping them would be to conquer the wasteland to prevent any more of this shit from taking place...
Although I was in the midst of brainstorming, I rested my left hand on Mary's shoulder and attempted to improve her current mental dilemma. "Hey, cheer up, we did the right thing by sending them off."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Well, had we not shown up, the alternative would've been them continuing to be subjected to the violent and wicked whims of the scum that reside here until their bodies could no longer hold up against their torture. So me ending their suffering here and now is a whole hell of a lot better compared to the alternative. I also made sure to look to see if they had even a hint of fight left in them, but unfortunately, they were all broken both in mind and body, making them nothing more than husks that were shells of their former selves."
"...I guess you got a point."
"I do, so let's not mope and dwell on this anymore and go deliver some retribution to the perps who are behind this whole fucked up tragedy to begin with. I'm sure their most recent set of victims and those before them will be smiling down on us from wherever they are if we do that, right?"
"Mm, I know I would... Alright, I'm done second guessing, let's go dispense some justice!"
"That's the spirit. I'll even let you get the first kick in." I encouraged, while patting her shoulder.
"My, aren't you a gentleman." She said in her typical hybrid southern bell/cowgirl accent.
With the firecracker returned to her former spirits, we hurried off back the way we came, leaving the vile and horrific mess to be cleaned up later.
[ Loot Gained ]
| Weapons |
AKMs (15) - AR-15 Rifles (13) - M4 Carbines (17) - M5 Assault Rifle (3) - M90 Frag Grenades (58) - M101 Frag Mines (22) - Model 2187 (1) - Mossberg 500s (10) - Sawed-off Double Barreled 12 Gauge Shotguns (7)
| Weapon Magazines |
5.56 STANAG 30 Round Magazines (161) - 5.56 STANAG 60 Round Quad Stack Magazines (23) - AK-47 30 Round Magazines (60) - AK-47 40 Round Magazines (5)
| Aid |
First Aid Kit (15) - Maxigen Bottle (3) - Medstims (34) - R4GE Injectors (11)
| Ammo |
10 Gauge Shotgun Shells (30) - 12 Gauge Shotgun Shells (387) - 5.56x45mm Rounds (8,773) - 7.62x39mm Rounds (3,684)
| Skill Books |
All Things Gun (1)
| Miscellaneous |
Metal (1,227) - Other Misc Items (2,453)
| Money |
Dollars (121,313)
| Creatures |
Bandits (37)
[ Creatures Killed & EXP Gained ]
Bandits (4) 4,524 exp - Humans (20,815) - Total exp 29,359
______
More chapters are coming.